"What are you really trying to do? With your intelligence, you could build a staggering fortune in a few years through legitimate business. Is it really necessary to continue being con artists?"
Jenkins shouted into the darkness, then cast another projection. To avoid being caught by the cara's flash, he chose a position far from the photographers.
"Just as you said, the era of change has arrived, and we have seen the morning star."
The woman's voice rang out, followed by the sound of footsteps he deliberately created.
Jenkins canceled the projection and strode forward with the oil lamp. His hurried pace made his footsteps louder, leading the audience to believe their steps were overlapping, rather than realizing the first set had already vanished.
No one was visible in the lamplight. Jenkins held the lamp up and addressed the empty wall.
"Like you, I see this era of change. But why choose scams? Is it rely to show off your intelligence?"
"The masses are fools. If we are to guide this era of change, the simplest way is to let them experience the mistakes they are bound to make."
Whispers rippled through the audience in the darkness. Jenkins moved up the aisle between the seats, but he still couldn't find any trace of the woman.
He stood his ground and scanned the surroundings. In the glow of the oil lamp, his striking features and handso face commanded more attention than ever.
"Only a fool would use such thods to prove they're smarter than everyone else. Since the era has reached this turning point, we should guide it forward through proper ans. I've never heard of deception being a tool for progress."
"Williams, finance is like a tsunami. Once you open that door, you can't close it. If we don't warn people with the harshest consequences before they fully grasp its nature, they will inevitably walk down the wrong path."
This ti, the woman's voice ca from the lecture stage. Those in the front row caught a fleeting glimpse of her silhouette—a tall woman, though her attire and features were obscured as the lectern hid most of her body.
As Jenkins strode forward, the figure vanished in the light. His footsteps were firm and steady as he demanded loudly:
"Do you think you're the masters of this era?"
"No. Steam forged this era. We are rely the trailblazers of the coming age of finance."
Now the voice erged from beside the policen in the last row. Jenkins, standing on the stage, rose onto his toes and held the lamp high, trying to illuminate the upper seats. But as he turned, the people looking back with him saw only clusters of shadows dancing on the empty walls.
"Trailblazers? Oh, madam, that's laughable. You're trying to achieve a just outco through deceit? No. If you truly want to lead the world's transformation, if you genuinely want to set a course for our civilization, you should step into the light and cooperate with the Kingdom."
"But ordinary people are simply too foolish, Williams. We're intelligent people; surely you can feel the difference between us and those idiots who only know how to grovel at a pile of money? Without the scam we orchestrated, do you really think your lectures would have had any effect on them? The only way to teach these people is to give them a lesson they'll never forget."
Her speech this ti was longer, giving Jenkins enough ti to walk over. However, because he stood still, listening with intense focus instead of moving as she spoke, he was a step too late. But no one blad him. By now, everyone in the hall had to admit that the woman, hidden in the darkness and yet to reveal her true face, was truly formidable.
"Listen to , madam. I acknowledge your brilliance, but I do not condone your thods. Not just this ti, but from now on. Whatever scams you devise, I will expose them all. You will not see a single one of your plans co to fruition."
"Williams, aren't you being a bit arrogant? You're not the only intelligent person in this era. Do you really believe you alone can stand against all of us?"
"I am not alone. If you had truly listened to my speech earlier, you would know that I intend to completely reform the Kingdom's financial departnts and thoroughly restructure the original Royal Bank."
He stood on the stage, scanning the hall, when the woman's voice suddenly spoke from directly behind him. Jenkins had been careless and failed to swing the lamp, held at chest height, around in ti. The audience, seeing him frozen in place with the blurry figure of a woman behind him, assud a knife was being pressed against his back.
"Oh, Williams, this is our era. Whether it's us, the so-called 'con artists,' or a rising political star and new noble like you, none of us can escape the currents of the tis."
A fair hand, adorned with a golden Ouroboros ring, reached out from behind Jenkins and took the lamp from his grasp. She embraced him from behind, as if whispering in his ear.
But then she suddenly pushed him, sending Jenkins into the darkness beyond the lamplight's reach. Miss Fabry stepped forward, and the audience finally saw her: a young woman with delicate features and exceptionally bright, erald-green eyes.
Everyone held their breath, as if the slightest sound would cause this phantom-like woman to dissipate.
In the warm yellow light, she may not have been as beautiful as a princess from a fairy tale, but the brilliance of her master intellect, combined with everything that had just transpired, made her the most dazzling woman of the era.
A great cry echoed through the lecture hall, seeming to herald the dawn of a new age:
"Steam forged our era, and finance will beco its surging lifeblood! The Believers of Lies will..."
The kerosene lamp flickered. The Jenkins in the projection left a 'real illusion' of 'Miss Fabry' on the stage while he himself snatched the lamp from her hands.
To the audience below, it appeared as though, in a mont of darkness, the Jenkins behind Miss Fabry had once again gained the upper hand.
"That rushing lifeblood is made of little slips of paper and coins that represent wealth, or perhaps sothing even more illusory. But the foundation of everything is industry! I know what you're trying to do, Miss Con Artist, but..."
He shook the lamp to create a mont of darkness, canceling the illusion to make Miss Fabry vanish. To replicate her face, he re-projected her with a false visage filled out with flesh. The light was too dim for anyone to see the details, making the deception perfect.
What the audience saw, however, was Miss Fabry reaching out from the unlit side of the stage to snatch the lamp from Jenkins's hand, turning the glow upon herself and casting him into shadow.
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